Armed off-campus home robberies cause alarm near Ohio State

A female OSU student living on West Maynard Avenue reportedly awoke to two suspects pointing guns at her Wednesday at about 11:30 a.m. The suspects, who gained access through a side window, bound the woman’s hands and put her in the basement, according to the notice.

The Columbus Division of Police responded to the call, and the home invasion armed robbery contributed to University Police’s decision to issue a public safety notice about recurring home invasion armed robberies late Wednesday afternoon.

Before the notice, though, Julie Greenwood, a third-year in psychology who lives near the house that was allegedly robbed, said she saw police cars at her neighbors’ house at about 1:30 p.m. when she returned from class and found out about what had happened from her roommates.

“One of my roommates actually went and asked someone what happened,” Greenwood said. “The guy had knocked on the door and when someone didn’t answer he broke into the window on the side of the house.”

Greenwood said her house’s layout is different from the house that was reportedly broken into, but she was still worried what had happened could have happened to her.

“When I heard it from my roommate and she mentioned the knocking, I was really frightened, because this morning we heard people ringing our doorbell but we didn’t know who it was so we didn’t answer,” Greenwood said.

About three and a half weeks earlier, Columbus Police responded to a call at about 10 a.m. Aug. 19 reporting a man and his roommate were victims of a home invasion robbery on West Oakland Avenue, according to the public safety notice.

The males, both OSU students, responded to a knock at the door and found two suspects who forced their way into the males’ home at knifepoint, according to the notice.

Property reported stolen in the incident included three laptops, two Apple iPads, a camera, two cell phones, a driver’s license, cash, a wallet, two mountain bikes, a video gaming system and miscellaneous jewelry, totalling an approximate $6,800, according to a Columbus Police report.

University Police and Columbus Police representatives did not immediately respond to calls requesting comment about the notice Wednesday afternoon.

Though Greenwood had adjusted to the news by the time the university notice was issued, she said she was concerned about the timing of the alert.

“I was surprised that we hadn’t gotten a notice about that (the earlier robbery) sooner because if we had known about that it wouldn’t have necessarily stopped what had happened but it would have (alerted everyone) that it was something that could happen,” Greenwood said.

The suspects in the Wednesday incident were described as a Latino male about 25-30 years old, between 6 feet and 6 feet 2 inches tall, and a 6-foot-1-inch black male who was wearing a gray Michigan sweatshirt and a mask, according to the notice.

The suspects in the Aug. 19 incident, were described as a white male with short blonde hair wearing a red OSU sweatshirt and a black male wearing dark clothing. Both suspects were allegedly about 20-25 years old and stood about 6 feet tall.

The university public safety notice was issued after 5 p.m. Wednesday.